Improvement in evaporators



W. J. SHAR P. Evappraton No. 214,959-. Patented April 29,1879.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE:

WILLIAM J. SHABP, OF BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA.

IM PROVEM ENT IN EVAPORATO RS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N o. %14,959, dated April29, 1879 application filed February 26, 1879.

To all whom it may concern- Beit known that I, WILLIAM J osEPH SHARP, ofBaton Bouge, in the parish of East Baton Rouge and State of Louisiana,have invented a new and useful Improvementin Evaporators; and I dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same.

My invention is an improvement in the class of open cane-j niceevaporators, and* is more particularly intended as a substitute for theevap orator now commonl y used in Louisiana, which consists of a set ofkettles, four or five in number, placed in line. The four kettles aretechnically known as the grande, flambean, sirop, and the batterz'e. Thegrande or large kettle receives the cane-juice from the mill, and isfarthest removed from the mouth of the furnace, where the grate islocated, and the kettles are subjected to equal heat on the front andrear side. The scum as it rises is swept toward the rear of the furnacefrom kettle to kettle; and as the kettles empty by evaporation, thejuice is dipped from one into the other, proceeding toward the batterieor finishing-kettle, from which it is transferred, clarified andthickened, to the coolers.

In my invention the receptacles grande, flambean, &c., for the juice areconnected and form parts of an oblong rectangular pan, the receptaclesbeing compartments thereof, which are formed by vertical partitions thatdivide the pan transversely, and are graduat ed in height from the frontto rear of the pan.

In place of the fire being under the batter'e or last juice-receptacle,as usual heretofore, it is under the grande, or first compartment of thepan, and the latter is set on the furnace in such a manner that'thegrande has a smaller area of surface exposed to the fire than the othercompartments, while the fire has free access to the rear side of thepan, but none to the front side, by reason of the latter projecting overor beyond the furnace-wall. Thus the juice is not only hottest in thegrande, less hotin the flambean, and least hot in the batterie, butoverboils from compartment to Compartment toward the grande,- and, what`is of chief importance, the front side of the fan being comparativelycool, the scum is caused to gather thereat, so that it may be easilyremoved into a trough or gutter that extends forward to the fire-front.

In accompanyingdrawings, forming part of this specification, I haveillustrated my invention by an exterior perspectve view, Figure 1, ofthe pan and furnace; a longitudinal vertical section of the same, Fig,-2 and three vertical cross'- sections, Figs. 3, 4, 5, through differentportions of the pan and furnace. Fig. 6 is a plan view of the furnaceproper.

A indicates the fire-box or fuel -chanber, and B and D the respectivefront and rear walls of the furnace, on which the pan lis set. F is thehorizontal flue of the furnace; Gr, the throat, and H the chimney.

The front wall, B, is vertical on its inner side but the rear wall, D,is inclined outward, and has an overhanging top portion or ledge,besides being higher than the front wall. The rear side of the pan abutssaid ledge of the rear wall, D, and its front side overhangs' orprojects beyond the front wall, B, upon which its bottom rests. It willbe seen that a narrow space or chamber, F, is thus formed between therear wall, D, and the rear side of the pan, which permits the fire freeaccess to the latter, while the front portion of the pan is removed fromthe directinfluence or actio'n of the fire. Thus the rear side of thepan is kept much hotter th an the front and, by con sequence of thejuice being more highly heated along the rear side, a circulation is setup which carries the scum toward, and causes it to accunnlate along, theinclined front, where it is conveniently removed into the gut-ter K thatextends along the same to the front end or mouth of the furnace. Thelabor of skimming the juice is thereby greatly facilitated andexpedited, besides bein g more perfectly accomplished than ispracticable with kettles arranged in the usual Way. i

The space between the walls B D of the furnace is of a uniform widthunder the fiambean, sirop, and batter'e-that is to say, under thesecond, third, and fourth compartments of the series; but the frontwall, B, projects farther inward under the grande or first compartment,so that less of the surface of the pan is exposed to the fire at thatpoint than at any other. The flue F is lihewise of graduaIly-decreasingdepth up to the throat G.

By this construction of the walls and flue of the furnace I graduatc theefl'ect of the fire on the pau so that the grande or first compartment,into which the juice is admitted cold, is subjected to the highest leat,;yet not exposed to the full action of the fire, and the succeedingcompartments, 2, 3, 4, are subjected to gradually-decreasing heat, byreason of their difi'eret distances from the fire-box proper, but have auniform area of exposed surface. The batter'e or finishing Compartmentishence the coolest of the four, and the thickened juice is not liable toinjury by overheatiu'g. The transverse partitions L are of graduatedheight, increasing from the front end to the rear of the pan I. Thus thebatter'c or eompartment 4 overboils into the sirop or compartment 3, thes'mp into the fiambeau, 2, and the flambeau into the grande 1. Ofcourse, the dipping required to supply the decrease in quantity byevaporation proceeds in the opposite direction from grande to flambeau,and so on, as usual heretofore.

I do not claim an evaporating pan having compartments and transversepartitios which are graduated in height from front to reat', thelowestbein g placed next the first compartment or grande, and thehighest next the last compartment or battert'e.

What I claim is 1. The combination of the following elements: first, afurnace having one of its walls extended higher than the other, andprovided with a recess extendug along its inner side; second, a pau forevaporatin gsacchariue j uices, which is placed on said furnace with itsrear side opposite the recessed portion of the rear furnace-wall, andits front portion resting on the front furnacewall, all as shown anddescribed, for the purpose specified.

2. The combination of the eVaporating-pan having the severalcompartments 1, 2, 3, 4, with the frnace, the space between the sidewalls of which are narrower under the grande, which first receives thejuice from the press, and of greater but uniform width under the otherthree compa'tnents, as and for the purpose specified.

WILLIAM JOSEPH SHARP.

Wituesses:

J. W. BATES, EMILE DROZ.

